When I was called back to work with UWPfilm (was PACEfilm) in 1975 to film the Bicentennial year of UWP activities I knew I was going to meet some pretty great people.
About the friendliest guy I ever met was a tall, burley Montana man (18 years old) who had a huge heart and humble, caring way about him. His caring and humble personality was a strength befitting a warrior or a great leader of thousands. I marveled any time I was with him or watched him. I was about 8 years older than he but I learned from him constantly what caring for others meant - in a large Montana way.
My producer, Diarmid Campbell, and I chose Carson to be included in a few scenes we wanted to shoot. Once we got him on a horse and he sat comfortably tall above the horse like it was a custom fit, as if he owned the horse and rode it daily for a decade. I was the main cameraman, lugging the 16mm camera and equipment from shoot to shoot, (no digital then) although we often had a van filled with equipment that Chris from Pittsburgh made sure got to the new city on time.
We were in charge of filming the major cities and myriad of happenings that each of 9 casts were performing and experiencing. This was the bicentennial and Up with People was going all out, to many parts of the world and all over this country. We filmed a halftime performance at Super Bowl X, behind the Iron Curtain in Poland, Indy 500, a mile up in a hot air balloon, a performance at Ole Miss where protesting students tried to stop the show to air their racial demands and we filmed shows in stadiums, Native American reservations, schools, auditoriums, in parks and a hundred other places.
We weren't always visiting Carson's cast, but when we did, we sought out Carson who almost unwillingly accepted filming requests. I say "unwillingly" because he didn't want to be in the spotlight and center of attention. I recently read an article in his town newspaper that his cast was going to visit his home town of Billings, Montana and do a performance at the High School he attended. He told the news editor that he would not be in much of the show as his work was mostly behind the stage doing sound and lighting.
There was a young lady he took a shine to in the cast and he tried to spend what little free time there was available with her. I remember sneaking a couple shots of them having a picnic by the beach in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Carson was asked to stay on for another year and "staging" was in Tucson Arizona. I was visiting Tucson for a couple of days and was a room-mate of Carson's staying in a motel/hotel with a swimming pool in the center of the complex. We got back to the hotel from rehearsal rather late and the pool gate had been padlocked for hours. We wanted to take a dip so we casually climbed the 6 ft. chain link fence and quietly refreshed our selves. We knew we were breaking rules, as UWP people were expected to always be on their best behavior when in public. If any hotel employees were walking around after we got out of the pool, they could easily follow our wet footprints back to our room.
I don't think either of us would do something like that if we were brand new UWP recruits and hadn't known each other for a year of very hard work.
Several weeks later we were rooming together in a small dorm room in Chandler, Arizona. He mentioned that he had a bump on his lower abdomen and I asked him to show it to me as I was concerned. I thought it some kind of hernia and advised him to immediately see a doctor. He said he would after tomorrow when we travelled to our next city. The doctor told him he had to leave the cast immediately and return home for additional medical care. I had heard weeks later that he was battling some kind of cancer spread throughout his warrior's body.
About 6 months later I was interviewing a prospective student applying to join next year's Up with People's cast and was quietly interrupted to be told that Carson had lost the battle his 19 year old mortal body was fighting. I couldn't finish the interview...
I have told very few people in this world that this man was one of a handful of gentle spirits that I have witnessed knowing that came as close to being a heavenly soldier that any mortal could be. All, except my wife, were called home early.
NOTE: I hope I can add a picture or two when I find them. My research shows that he was born September 6, 1957, lived in Billings, Montana and passed away March 1, 1977. This would have put him joining UWP Cast 75-76C and leaving shortly after staying with Cast 76-77C.